Predicting the subjective intensity of imagined sensory experiences from electrophysiological measures of oscillatory brain activity

Abstract

ABSTRACTMost people can conjure images and sounds that they experience in their minds. There are, however, marked individual differences. Some people report that they cannot generate imagined sensory experiences at all (aphantasics) and others report that they have unusually intense imagined experiences (hyper-phantasics). These individual differences have been linked to activity in sensory brain regions, driven by feedback. We would therefore expect imagined experiences to be associated with specific frequencies of oscillatory brain activity, as these can be a hallmark of neural interactions within and across regions of the brain. Replicating a number of other studies, relative to meditation we find that the act of engaging in imagining auditory or visual sensations is linked to reductions in the power of oscillatory brain activity across a broad range of frequencies, with prominent peaks in the alpha band (8-12 Hz). This oscillatory activity, however, did not predict individual differences in the subjective intensity of imagined experiences. For imagined audio experiences, these were rather predicted by reductions within the theta (6 – 9 Hz) and gamma (33 – 38 Hz) bands, and by increases in beta (15 – 17Hz) band activity. For imagined visual experiences these were predicted by reductions in lower (14 – 16Hz) and upper (29 – 32 Hz) beta band activity, and by an increase in mid-beta band (24 – 26 Hz) activity. Our data suggest that there is sufficient ground truth to the subjective reports that people use to describe the intensity of their imagined sensory experiences such that these can be predicted by the power of distinct rhythms of brain activity.